Prior art crimp stops are cast from melted steel or are injection molded and are very thick in dimension. A thicker crimp stop that is annealed by melting can be adequately soft, but have the drawbacks of being bulky and expensive, as more metal is squeezed against the underlying wires.
One prior art crimp stop is disclosed by Brosius, US PG Pub 2007/0042314 A1, which provides a crimpable orthodontic device attempting to solve the problem of crimp stops tending to slide down an archwire. As stated by Brosius, methods such as coating the inner side of the stop has drawbacks including cost and also the coating may wear off over time. In Brosius ('314), the inner surfaces of the crimp stop are etched, stamped, or otherwise roughened to increase friction and resist slippage between the crimpable stop and the orthodontic wire. The prior art device of Brosius ('314) also includes upper and lower edges to lock around the archwire to hold the wire in place. Brosius ('314) involves an etching process to increase the holding power, but the full annealing of thin-walled, non-cast or non-molded crimp stops to greatly improve their working and holding power is not disclosed. The prior art does not teach or disclose fully annealing the stainless steel crimp stop to soften the stop and allow it to be crimped in place.